Monday, December 31, 2012

Ahh, it's that time of year again. The time where everyone tries to better themselves with a list of things they hope to accomplish in the upcoming new year. I did this last year, and I believe I stuck with them throughout 2012.

Here's my list of resolutions for 2013, in no particular order:

I will continue to take better care of myself in 2013.

I lost a few pounds this year, about 20. I had stepped on a scale around Christmas 2011, and it had said 232 pounds. I cried. I stomped my feet in anger. I even threw the scale. I managed to eat better, exercised, do some walking (that lasted a few months), and drink less soda and coffee (up until the last few weeks or so). I got down to 209. I'm now at 211. I'd like to get down to 190 within a year. Yep, another 20 pounds and I'll be a happy, healthy author.

I didn't consult with a physician this year, though. I have to do that, or else Jen will hurt me. She has promised this.

I will publish three books in 2013.

I've set my writing goals for the upcoming year: Publish three books, and write 200,000 words. One of the books is already finished and just needs cover art. I'm waiting to see if I can get a better picture of it before I slip it through the uploader. I'm currently writing REDEEMED, which is halfway done, story-wise, at 83,550 words. I figure it'll take me at least another 70K-85K to finish the story. I also need to plot, write, and publish the fifth AGENT novel. I'm actually jotting notes down about it now. I'd like to write about 130,000 words in that one. Anything outside of those two books will be gravy for me.

I wrote somewhere between 260K-275K words for fiction this year. A fourth book would be difficult, but I probably could do it.

I will not rush my writing in 2013.

This one goes alongside the last resolution. I don't want to rush my story. I want the story to come out at its own pace. I want the details to come out. I don't want to rush and miss anything. It'll make my stories that much more readable.

I hope.

I will spend less time promoting and let my work speak for itself in 2013.

Tough one. I'm always on Facebook and Twitter trying to drum up sales when I'm supposed to be writing. I have 15 novels out, plus short stories and novellas. I hope to have 18 out within a year's time. My work has improved, as far as I know, so that I shouldn't have to do excessive amounts of promotion. At least that's what I hope. That could be my ego talking. Check back with me and see if we get into a fistfight.

I will blog more in 2013.

Kind of tied into the one above. In 2009, I wrote 19 blogs. In 2010, I wrote 69. In 2011, I wrote 15 blogs on Blogger, 24 on LiveJournal. In 2012, I wrote 33 blogs (this is No. 34). My peak, as you can easily tell, was 2010. But most of my blogs were about me and my writing. Sometimes they were about my observations in the publishing world, talking up Kindle and all that. I hope to do more blogs about people in the industry -- in other words, more author interviews. I want to sell books, yes... but I also want to introduce you to authors you may not have heard of before, authors whose books you should read.

Friday, December 28, 2012

So here we are, 2012 is almost kaput, and yours truly had an absolutely fantastic year. Not only did I meet someone beyond fantastic in my personal life--the woman who completes me in every way, shape and form--my professional life has been just as fantastic.

Professionally, I published three novels, a novella, and three children's stories in 2013. Starting with and introducing Furball and Feathers: The Cat Food Caper!, I brought several stories to the fore, and continued the Jaclyn Johnson AGENT series with the release of FEDERAL AGENT.

In 2013, I plan on releasing the second Obloeron fantasy prequel within the first quarter, plus the project I'm currently working on, REDEEMED, in the summer. The fifth Jaclyn Johnson novel will be written over the summer, and there may even be a third Furball and Feathers.

As of this morning, I was 91 books away from 4,000 sold for the year, and 81 away from selling 7,000 lifetime. I know I'll be at 7,000 soon, possibly right after the ball drops.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

THE NEXT BIG THING is a chain of
book and author recommendations. One author tags five others, who then each tag
five others. The idea is that we all help people out there learn about all the
good stuff that’s just out or coming soon. David
Wood tagged me on his blog and now it’s my turn.

(Sean’s note: I’ve been tagged
twice, but I failed to do it the first time. I’m a naughty, naughty boy.)

1. What is the working title of your
next book?

My current work in progress is entitled
REDEEMED. As I'm still writing it, it's difficult to go into further detail

2. Where did the idea come from for
the book?

Truthfully? I don’t really remember,
but one of the chapters I thought up while on vacation in August.

3. What genre does your book fall
under?

This is a dystopian fiction novel
set over a period of about 50 years. There’s action and thriller aspects, and
later on, romance. So it’s an eclectic mix. Not really one genre to pin down.

4. What actors would you choose to
play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Difficult to say: I don’t know a lot
of actors that are in play right now. I’m thinking that fresh faces would be
best.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis
of your book?

A man with a questionable past is
saved, and in turn his deeds help others.

6. Will your book be self-published
or represented by an agency?

I'll be self-publishing this, unless
someone wants to take it on.

7. How long did it take you to write
the first draft of the manuscript?

Currently working on the first
draft. Right now, I'm in chapter 21, a little over 60,000 words. I’m thinking
that this book is going to be a doorstop.

8. What other books would you
compare this story to within your genre?

Not too sure, to be honest.

9. Who or what inspired you to write
this book?

It’s a story I wanted to write.
Nothing really inspired me to write it.

Next week, on Wednesday, December
12th, they will be posting their own answers to these questions. I'd really
appreciate you guys supporting my friends by clicking on their names and
visiting their blogs to see how they answered it! I'd really appreciate it if
you would click on David Wood's link at the start of this post (if you haven't
already seen it). This post is all about making you guys aware of some awesome
new books that are coming out soon and it only works if you participate by
clicking on their links!

Sunday, December 2, 2012

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been quiet on the
blogging front lately. I’ve been deep in the first draft of REDEEMED, a
dystopian novel set mainly in Boston. I haven’t done much in the way of
promoting FEDERAL AGENT, especially over the last couple of weeks. There’s been
Thanksgiving meals and mainly concentrating on REDEEMED, which may be the most
vast undertaking that I’ll ever write.

Of course, I say that and I’ll come back with
something bigger in a couple of years.

I was keenly ready to promote FA, my fourth Jaclyn
Johnson thriller set in Atlanta—but then I got stuck in traffic. Seriously, buy
the book and read it. You’ll understand. I had barely done anything to promote
it.

But something happened on the way to writing this
post: I published another book. In fact, earlier this morning (Sunday, December
2), I uploaded my next mystery, entitled Voir Dire (for those of you who don’t
speak Latin, Voir Dire means To seek the truth). As I sat in my writer’s room,
I thought to myself, “Self, you just can’t do that.”

And then I answered myself—shit, I’m sounding a lot
like Voldemort, aren’t I?—“That’s two books. Seriously, you can’t blog about
one and not the other. Whatever will you do?”

The answer came to me: take the readers on a tour of
your mind, where everything is created, processed, and eventually churned out
into a pile of prose. It is the source of everything that I’ve written,
spreading across multiple genres and multiple years.

Mind your step: It’s squishy in some spots.

Follow along as I show you the vast world of
Obloeron, where everything started: A fantasy world with humans, elves,
dwarves, evil (and good) wizards, orcs, trolls, and assorted beasts conjured some
three feet above my ass. Behold the sword of Flad-rul, and the men who have
possessed it. Follow me to Arida, a world of gentle things—except the evil
dwarves. Preston travels through it to engage Urcin in battle.

Follow me to 1919 Boston, where a pair of baseball
fans become time travelers in order to stop not one, but two of the most
heinous events in baseball history from occurring.

Follow me into space, where Ryann Germayne must make
a decision to save the galaxy.

Follow me through Jaclyn Johnson’s world of
espionage and danger as she saves countless lives from terrorism. Boston,
London, Las Vegas, Atlanta.And many
places in between.

Follow me to my hometown, where private investigator
Alex Bourque dodges criminals and finds his way into his girlfriend’s arms and undies—not
that it’s too hard to do that second one, but anyway...

Follow me to Tombstone, where four teens must stay
true to themselves in order to save themselves from zombies, while two of them
reveal a family secret.

Follow me to Oklahoma City, where a baseball writer
finds things aren’t so copacetic in the big league club’s locker room.

And soon, follow me into the future of Boston, where
one man eludes the authorities and leads the people into rebellion.

I just loaded this book to Kindle, Nook and Kobo, so give it a day or two before purchasing it. Hope you enjoy this sample!

Chapter 1

I was mere seconds away from leaving my
office for the weekend—well, for what remained of the weekend: it was nearly 4
p.m. on a Saturday, and after a long week of cases I was primed for an evening
of New England Revolution soccer with my lovely girlfriend Lauryn Kennedy. I
had on my lilywhite Revs home jersey with Fagundez 14 stitched into the back,
and a red, white and blue Revs scarf wrapped around the back of my neck. The
keys to my new-to-me Ford Escort were in my hand, we had tickets for The Fort
at Gillette Stadium, and I was just about to walk out the door when I heard
those rapid footsteps on the way up to my office.

“Oh, hell,” I muttered, knowing that
within five seconds, someone would walk in and have me take on their case. The
timing was beyond impeccable. I took off my scarf and tossed it onto my desk,
then turned and awaited their arrival.

I saw the silhouette of whoever had walked
up the stairs through the frosted glass, but it didn’t seem like the
silhouette’s owner was coming in any time soon. It’s when I saw the shadow turn
that I noticed something bulky on the person’s hip. It could have been a nasty
growth or a deformity of some kind, but when the person bent over and slipped
several thin envelopes through the slot, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was
only the mailman. It was anticlimactic, but still.

I walked over and scooped up the day’s
delivery. I flipped through them, the pads of my fingertips running over the
heavy paper. I beamed at the sight of a check from the little old lady who had
cornered me at Espresso Pizza a week ago and asked me to get a group of foreigners
off her tail. Apparently they were trying to scam her out of money, and she
recognized me from my picture in the paper after the James Sullivan matter back
in June. There was a bill from the gas and light company, which I knew would
immediately erase the contents of the check.

And there was the summons for jury duty,
the name Alex Bourque typed across the top. I grimaced upon sight of the white
and blue postcard.

“Oh hell,” I said again, tossing the
rest of the mail on my desk and parking my butt in my captain’s chair. I kept
the summons in my hand and I rubbed my chin. The remnants of my shaving from
yesterday lingered.

I had registered to vote right on my 18th
birthday, one of the few in my class who took care of that so early. I’ve voted
in every election over the past four years, and I had planned to vote this
November. And I had heard that the Commonwealth, in its infinite wisdom, likes
to call freshly-registered voters to jury duty within a year of their 18th
birthday. For some reason, the Commonwealth forgot about me—until now.

I’ve received summonses before now,
although it was usually a Worcester County deputy sheriff or a constable who
served me for this case or another. It was alright, because that was a part of
the whole private investigator thing and part of the game. I had my witness fee
to collect. I wouldn’t get paid for jury duty.

I opened the folded postcard and looked
at the information. I groaned when I found out where I had to fulfill my
service to the Commonwealth.

My office is located on the corner of
Wallace Avenue and Main Street in my hometown of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. The
Fitchburg District Court—which, in a bit of irony, started life well over a
century ago as a post office—is located only a block to the north. It would
have been easy for me: head to the office at 8 a.m., have a cup of coffee as I
read the paper, then walk two minutes to the courthouse. I’ve made that trek
pretty much every day.

Where did they send me? Not Leominster,
and not Gardner, either.

They had sent me to Clinton.

Clinton!

I don’t have anything against Clinton,
Massachusetts. Clinton is famed for The Strand movie theater, The Old Timer
restaurant, as well as more bars than street corners in any town in north
central Mass. Fitchburg High only plays the Clinton High Gaels during the
basketball season, so there wasn’t much a rivalry there—and we usually kick
their ass, but that’s not really the point. Here’s what really sucked about
this assignment: The fact I would have to wake up at like 6 to get ready for
that instead of 7, then battle my way onto Route 2 East, 190 South and Route
117 East before meandering through Clinton on Route 70 to get to the Wachusett
Reservoir… it just didn’t make sense to me. Nothing big ever happened in the
towns under the Clinton District Court’s jurisdiction to begin with, so to say
I was left scratching my head was something of an understatement. I grimaced as
I looked out the window toward Monument Park.

Summer was on its last legs here in
Massachusetts, Labor Day only a few weeks past. The trees had already started
their annual morph toward the skeleton phase. The temperature had already made
its abrupt change, and soon we’d be exchanging summer shorts for long pants and
jackets. There was still modest sunshine, even though the days had grown
shorter.

I looked at the summons again: the
Commonwealth wanted me to serve just before Columbus Day weekend, which
according to them would give me three weeks to alert my employer of my civic
obligation.

I snorted. Consider my employer
notified.

I stood up and brought my summons with
me. I locked my office, walked down the stairs and hopped into my Escort. With
the jury duty summons on my passenger seat, I drove off toward Lauryn’s
apartment at good ol’ State U.

I tried not to think about my pending
date with the Massachusetts criminal court system and instead thought about my
date with Lauryn. This would be our second Revs match this season: the last
time we were at Gillette, New England had knocked off Colorado, 2-1. Since
then, the Revs had slumped and hadn’t won a match in nearly two months. Lauryn
and I hoped to break the skid with our attendance tonight, though I doubted it
would be that way. We were playing New York, and the Red Bulls weren’t the
perennial doormats in Major League Soccer any longer. I was looking forward to
the match.

A few minutes later, I forgot about the
game as Lauryn stepped out of her apartment. She glided to the car, as if
hovering several inches off the sidewalk. Lauryn wore a navy blue Revs hoodie
that hugged her upper body just right, her strawberry blonde hair splayed over
her shoulders. Her jeans fit just right, too.

Within seconds, my jeans, loose as they
were, started fitting a little snug.

She slid into my ride and leaned over
with a wide smile. She kissed me with those soft lips of hers, sliding her hand
up to caress my cheek. Her fingertips felt soft too. I could smell a hint of
raspberries wafting to my nostrils.

“Hey baby,” she said, breaking away.
“How was your day?”

I smiled.

“It just got better.” I leaned in for
another kiss. She leaned my way and pressed her lips against mine.

Lauryn sniffed a laugh.

“I bet it did.”

“Check under your ass,” I said. “My day
has been topsy-turvy, and that kind of brought it to a low level. Your kisses
and presence here lifted it.”

Lauryn reached under her pert rear end and
pulled out the jury notification just as I pulled away, making a three-point
turn before heading to Pearl Street. I turned left and followed it to John
Fitch Highway, which would lead me, after a few turns onto Bemis Road,
Wanoosnoc Road and Walton Street, to Route 2 East, 495 South and Route 1 North,
to Foxboro.

She frowned.

“Oh boy,” she said. “When do you have to
go to court?”

“Read it.”

She did. Her eyes widened almost
immediately. She had already served on a jury, so I knew she could find the
location of my service easily enough.

“Clinton?” she said with a bit of
wondering in her tone.

I nodded again.

“Who did you piss off to get sent
there?”

I couldn’t help but grin. Off we drove,
intent on putting jury duty out of my mind for the foreseeable future, and
hoping for a solid win in the football.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Within the next few hours, people all over the country--nay, all over the world--will ready themselves to partake in the beast known throughout the writing world as NaNo...better known as National Novel Writing Month. The goal of NaNo's participants: write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days, which breaks down to a minimum of 1,667 words a day.

Full disclosure: I've taken part in NaNo in the past. In fact, I've written a book in each of the last three NaNo's. Zombie Showdown was written at a breakneck pace of 4,000 words a day back in 2009, finishing on the 16th after two days off. Model Agent was my 2010 NaNo book, with the first 50K sliding in on the 28th or 29th. Last year, I wrote Eminent Souls. I think I made it with time to spare.

So, you're asking to yourself, what is Mr. Sweeney writing this year for NaNo.

The answer is I'm writing nothing for NaNo. I'm not taking part.

There are a few reasons for that. The first one is that I'm currently in the middle of a project entitled Redeemed. Redeemed is just a smidge over 30,000 words after 27-plus days of writing. I'm not rushing this project. If I write 1,000 words, fine. If I write 1,500, fine. On Monday, as Hurricane Sandy began to boil in Massachusetts, I wrote 300 words, and I was satisfied with that. I'm not killing myself with meeting a daily goal. What I'm trying to do with this project is quality words, not quantity--exactly the opposite of what NaNo suggests.

There's another reason: I write every day anyway. Every month of the year is, to me, NaNoWriMo. This is my job. This is what I do. I don't need a set month with which to write 50K.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Before Hurricane Sandy blew in--and by all means, my thoughts go out to those effected by the storm, especially fellow authors Imogen Rose, Donna Fasano, Terry Simpson and Anton Strout--yesterday, I managed to fix a few errors, then formatted and uploaded FEDERAL AGENT: A THRILLER to all ebook outlets. With the exception of Sony and Apple iBooks, which I upload through Smashwords and am awaiting premium services approval, the book is now available.

Phew. This book was a lot of fun, written during a whirlwind summer. Now it's time to go into promotion mode and hopefully blog a few times about it. And for the record, Jaclyn's adventures are no where close to ending. There is plenty more to come for this fantastic character.

So far, Kim Tomsett at Wistful Kimmies' book review blog has already reviewed it: you can find her review here. I want to thank both her and Big Al for pre-reading it. Trisha Reeves, as always, did an awesome job with the cover.

Before I go post the cover and some purchase links, I want to share something with you. This book deals with some adult subject matter. I know that I do have young fans that read my books. I don't know if this one is for them. If I were you parents, I'd read the book first before letting them read it. I know that I say that you never know, your kid may surprise you and can handle things well... I don't know about this one. I'd rather err on the side of caution... but then again, I'm not your child's parent.